Be Fascinated
It’s time for free time at camp. Where do all the grade schoolers go? To the creek, of course. No matter how many ways we try to encourage the young campers to do anything else and even though we do not allow them to play in the water, their fascination with the running water of the creek is too much to resist. They have to get close and beg – to no avail – to get in.
After the evening service at camp, it is time to go outside and listen to the missionary. Where do all the grade schoolers go? As close as possible to the fire until they are told to back away and sit down. Even then, the fire is so fascinating that they can hardly hold back the temptation to throw a twig, a stone, or a little weed into the glittering flames when they think no one is looking.
What is it about the running water and the flames of fire that is so fascinating? I have to admit, I have many memories of myself attempting to damn up small waterways with rocks. I still take a stick and dabble with the flames in a campfire or Weber grill on a regular basis. There is something fascinating about these two forces that seems to draw us in.
Perhaps it is because they are both moving. Surely, just the simple motion must catch our eye and attract our attention. Or maybe it is because that motion is both predictable and unpredictable at the same time. We know that the rock will sink in and block the water, but the change in motion as the water flows over or around the stone is simply fascinating. We also know that the stick we immerse in the flames will catch on fire, but nobody knows how fast the stick will go from smoking to burning and eventually become a red-hot coal. Or there is that possibility that we are fascinated by the power that we have over these moving substances, the power to channel the flow or spread the flames. By casting in rocks and sticks, we have the ability to change these fascinating phenomena according to our liking. In a way, the moving water and the flaming fire are alive and it is as though we are watching and interacting with a living organism when we gather next to the river or around the campfire.
I find this fascination ironic. The very organisms that fascinate us can and do become mighty beasts that can destroy in a matter of minutes, hours, or days. You only need to turn on the news to see the headlines of spreading forest fires and the recent tragedy of flash floods to recognize that the little creek and the common campfire are anything but tame and gentle creatures under our power. These fascinating organisms are God’s way of getting our attention, and it works, all too well.
Next time you gather around the campfire along the flowing creek or river, take the opportunity to be fascinated. But not so much by the flowing water and the flaming fire as by the glory of God.
“…the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:6-7